1. Field of Disclosure
Embodiments may relate generally to devices and methods for cooling a room, such as a data center, equipment room or wiring closet. More specifically, aspects of the present disclosure may relate to cooling systems and methods used to cool equipment housed by racks and enclosures.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Over the years, a number of different standards have been developed to enable equipment manufacturers to design rack mountable components that can be mounted in standard racks offered by different producers. An exemplary industry standard is commonly referred to as a “nineteen inch” rack, used extensively in data centers and other large facilities. With the proliferation of information technology, it is not uncommon for a data center to contain hundreds of these racks. Further, with the ever decreasing size of computer equipment, and in particular, computer servers and blades, the number of electrical devices mounted in each rack has been increasing, raising concerns about adequately cooling the equipment.
Previously, in certain configurations, data centers have been cooled by computer room air conditioner (“CRAC”) units that are typically hard piped, immobile units positioned around the periphery of the data center room. These CRAC units intake air from the fronts of the units and output cooler air upwardly toward the ceiling of the data center room. In other embodiments, the CRAC units intake air from near the ceiling of the data center room and discharge cooler air under a raised floor for delivery to the fronts of the equipment racks. The rack-mounted equipment typically cools itself by drawing air along a front side or air inlet side of a rack, drawing the air through its components, and subsequently exhausting the air from a rear or vent side of the rack. A disadvantage of the CRAC-type air conditioning system is that cool air is mixed with the room temperature air, which is inefficient.
Heat produced by rack-mounted equipment can have adverse effects on the performance, reliability and useful life of the equipment components. In particular, rack-mounted equipment, housed within an enclosure, may be vulnerable to heat build-up and hot spots produced within the confines of the enclosure during operation. Airflow requirements can vary considerably as a result of different numbers and types of rack-mounted components and different configurations of racks and enclosures. Users of electronic equipment may add, remove, and rearrange rack-mounted components as their needs change and new needs develop. Furthermore, the amount of heat generated by a rack of equipment is dependent on the amount of electrical power drawn by equipment in the rack during operation. Cooling requirements may therefore vary over time.